Obama `very hands on dad`, says `proud` Michelle

Washington: Michelle Obama was all praise for her husband as they celebrated Father’s Day on Sunday.

The First lady wished the President a Happy Father’s Day and recounted how he was committed to raising his daughters, Malia and Saha, as a good father.

“Barack is a very hands on dad. He works every day to be the kind of father that he didn’t have,” the Politico quoted her as saying.

The President, abandoned at a very young age by his own father and raised intermittently by his single mother and his grandparents in Hawaii, made the search for a father figure a central theme in his first book, “Dreams From My Father.”

“One of the things Barack is successful at is giving his children the kind of stability and continuity that he didn’t have,” the first lady said in a video released by the campaign.

“I don’t think he has missed at parent teacher conference their entire lives. He’s at everything he possibly can -- every concert, every game that he can make,” the first lady said.

“He knows that it’s so important for girls to know that they have the love and support of the most important man in their lives. And that’s their father,” she stated.

Despite his busy schedule, Obama always make it sure that he sits down together with his family at the dinner table.

“We have dinner together almost every night -- that means his work stops, he comes home and we sit down together as a family,” the first lady said.

“When we’re sitting around the dinner table, he’s not Barack Obama the President of the United States. He’s Malia and Sasha’s dad. I think that helps to ground him.”

“I’m proud of Barack not just because he’s a wonderful President, but because he’s a very engaged father. I feel pretty lucky. Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there. We love and appreciate you,” she added.

Obama also posted on Twitter “Thinking of two fathers I love dearly—the one who raised me and the one I married. Incredibly grateful for both.”